Officials: Heater caused residence fire in Macon

A house fire that started from an unattended space heater ravaged a home in Macon near Payne City early Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said.

Macon-Bibb County fire Capt. Tom Musselwhite said the house, located at 3869 Blossfield Ave., was destroyed, while a neighboring house also sustained some damage. Fire officials said they think an electrical heater was left on and unattended in a bedroom near some cardboard boxes.

No one was injured in the blaze, which was called in at 1:27 p.m. The house’s occupant wasn’t home at the time, Musselwhite said. The second home sustained about 15 percent damage, he said, mostly to the siding and a broken window, but firefighters were able to control the fire within 10 minutes and stopped it from spreading.

“The house is totalled,” Musselwhite said of the home where the fire started. “It had been burning for a little while before we got there.”